Poland’s Cracow is at the forefront of cities with the largest number of advanced business services centers internationally.

The city is home to business services centers with more than 35,000 employees between them, and a further 3,000 new jobs are expected to be created this year.

The latest Tholons Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations league table ranks Cracow first in Europe, ahead of the Irish capital, Dublin. Cracow is also listed among the top 10 outsourcing destinations worldwide—that means it is the destination of choice for companies thinking of outsourcing their business processes to Europe. Other Polish cities are far behind Cracow: Warsaw is 32nd and Wroc³aw 65th.

According to Aspire, an organization that brings together companies in the shared services, business process outsourcing and IT sector, in Cracow this sector has been growing at a rate of 20 percent annually over the past five years. This rate of growth is expected to continue in the coming years. As a result, more than 3,000 new jobs are expected to be created in Cracow in 2014. Last year alone, 11 companies based in the city increased employment by between 200 and 500 people.

The business services sector is strongly supported by the city’s authorities. “The modern service and research-and-development centers that global giants are so eager to open in Cracow are the driving force of the local economy,” said Cracow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski at a recent conference entitled “Made in Cracow: Partnership for the development of the city of Cracow in the context of the service sector.”

“Importantly, graduates from Cracow universities will find work in such centers without a problem,” Majchrowski added. “Our city is thus an example that cooperation between businesses, universities and local government is possible.”

According to Aspire, the average age of those working in Cracow service centers is 29, and 70 percent of the workers are graduates of local universities.

Meanwhile, increasingly complex processes are being transferred to Cracow, and the local centers are also expanding their operations, thus offering new opportunities for workers and attracting new professionals.